Legumes - Dried chickpeas, dried lentils, dried beans

[Toomessy]

When I say dried I mean not the canned ones that are precooked.

I have noticed that British people don't know what to do and how to cook dried legumes in casserole dishes rather than boil them.

Whoever ask if and how they cook them the either respond that they don't cook them or they just boil them. Their legume diet go as far as canned beans which full of sugar and preservatives or hummus.

I come from a country where legumes are a big part of our diet and as a kid I used to have legumes casserole once a week either in the pot or in the oven.

Am I right or have I just spoken to a small percentage of people and British enjoy casserole legumes?

Never had pulses a child, a veg casserole as adult, use pulses as needed

I eat a lot of beans and lentils in all sorts of dishes. Lentils I always cook myself as they are quick. Others (chick peas, kidney beans etc) I do usually use canned as it is quicker. But they don't have anything added except a bit of salt. No sugar!

What are you talking about, OP? Canned beans don't have sugar in them!

I cook with beans and chickpeas pretty regularly. I almost exclusively use canned beans and chickpeas. Not because I don't know how to cook them from dried, but because it's so much quicker and easier to use cans, and the price difference is negligible.

Sssshhh, @stealthsquirrelnutkin ! We want a few things available next time we order …

Who’s ‘uptight’, @Murasakispillowbook ? Perfectly civil conversation, far as I can see.

I'm not a fan, it's a texture thing for me. Tbh I only ever hear people talk about using them in Indian food, which I don't like. Or to bulk out a meal, which I don't do, I'd just make a smaller portion and serve with more veg and sides

Not for me due to high FODMAP content triggering IBS issues!

I think Jackie's comment has been removed! 🤣

I eat lots of frozen peas. Do they count?

I use dried lentils and tinned beans. The tinned beans are not full of sugar and preservatives I dont know where you are getting that from

I’ve recently bought tins of green lentils and various beans (kidney, cannellini, butter beans etc). Several brands and from different supermarkets.
none had sugar or salt in. They are mainly tinned in plain water.

OP would you please let me know which varieties or brands have sugar, salt or preservatives in so I can continue to avoid them?

I’m vegan so eat loads of them but can’t be arsed with the dried ones! Tinned are so much easier - I don’t have time in my life for all the soaking required!!

(Apart from red lentils though as make dhal with them and they are quick!)

I love legumes but mostly do curries and soups with them - would love a casserole recipe!

But canned beans aren't full of sugar. What's wrong with them? Fine, eat your legume casseroles, but don't assume too much about other people's cooking skills.

I associate legumes with a Mediterranean diet, really. Obviously, curries and dhal as well, but Mediterranean would be my first choice.

We eat a lot of dried pulses - last night's and tonight's dinner is a black eyed bean casserole, cooked in the slow cooker (beans soaked overnight first). It's absolutely delicious and I'm salivating about it already.

Same - they are the enemy!

Legumes are wind-inducing. I have meat for protein and vitamins

I cook with them regularly, lentil cottage pie, chickpea curry, three bean chilli and other dishes

I only use dried kidney beans when I'm making Jamaican rice n peas ( yum!) as you need dried beans for it, otherwise I use mainly tinned just for convenience. I do like a nice 3 bean stew with sausages and carrot and red lentil soup. Need to use beans more as meat is getting so expensive!

We eat them once or twice a week, it tends to be the tinned ones to reduced cooking times but I put dried lentils in bolognese and cottage pie to bulk out the meat a little.

OP People in the British Isles have been eating legumes for hundreds - even thousands- of years. Thick soup - called porage or pottage - made with dried peas (usually) or beans was the staple diet of most peasants, enriched with bacon if they were lucky. Medieval peasants also grew garlic, onions and 'coleworts' - various members of the cabbage family - which were added to pottage when available, together with wild herbs. Flour made from ground/mashed dried peas and beans was also used to bulk out coarse brown bread.
There is even a very, very old song about all this: 'Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold..... etc etc' see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pease_Porridge_Hot

As others have said, tinned beans - except baked beans - don't usually have added sugar. Just water, salt and sometimes calcium salts (eg chalk) which stop natural pectin in the beans dissolving in the canning water and making the beans go mushy. Nothing nasty!

We use canned beans or chickpeas about once a week. Not dry as I don’t have time to pre soak.

I did used to cook with dried lentils in soups and certain stews, but just fell out of the habit now. It’s quite common in British cooking to traditionally cook with dried pearl barley, but I can’t eat that now as I’m coeliac.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain what a lovely story

Same here! It's only a recent discovery/development and I'm so sad as I love them all, and love to cook with them, but the reality is my body doesnt like them anymore.